A Social Infrastructure for Hometown Security: Advancing the Homeland Security Paradigm

The nations homeland security strategy calls on federal, state, and local governments, businesses, communities, and individuals across the country to work together to achieve a shared vision of a secure way of life. Yet for over seven years, through attacks, threats, and disasters, the core ingredient in efforts to achieve that goal remains elusive. The American public has been left out and is largely missing in action. This elusiveness persists because of a misdiagnosis of the way the American people experience homeland security practices, inappropriate application of border screening and verification techniques to domestic public life, and an incomplete strategic preparedness framework that relies excessively on top-down federal management.